[Ultimately, The Establishment] seems to be a story about values and about the way people function in the modern world. At one point Barbara reflects that she has "done her share to make this snake pit men call civilization a little more tolerable." In various ways this is what the people of good will in this book seek to do. Against them we have the Establishment, "those who are so enormously rich and powerful that they control the state." A politician named Drake and a group of wealthy businessmen are among these.
Mr. Fast has written a readable book that holds the interest. He suggests that being part of the human race—in the best and truest sense—is important.
John S. Phillipson, "Fiction: 'The Establishment'," in Best Sellers (copyright © 1979 Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation), Vol. 39, No. 8, November, 1979, p. 277.
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